#88 MIDI music

[Mr.Rocket]

Hi,

Is there any way to bring the midi music up to par with todays standards.
I think it currently uses SDL? But I'm thinking fmod may be better?
The current midi doesn't seem to process all the instruments.

Here's what the midi sounds like in legacy at the moment:

Also there seems to be some sound fx changes, seems to only effect the menu sounds.
Previous legacy versions used the IWAD's soundfx, but now there are new sounds via legacy wad.
Why?

[Mr.Rocket]

Here's what the midi should sound like:

[Wesley Johnson]

What wad is that music from.

My midi music on both Linux and WinXP is like your good music file.
I have not heard music like that first file.

I believe the SDL midi player just passes the midi codes to the midi
player on the machine.

On Linux, the system must be setup with TiMidity and
have loaded a set of instruments for TiMidity to use.
There are some commercial instruments and there are some free ones.
It sounds like you are missing the instrument package.

The Linux X11 port better exposes what happens with the music lump.
The Linux X11 port has a music server that reads the wad lump and
passes the midi notes to the midi player as midi commands.
I have had a fight with this midi music player ignoring stop note commands
and leaving a droning music note running.
There is nothing I can do from our code that will stop the midi player
if it ignores the midi command.
This port also now limits the number of notes in the midi player queue,
otherwise the midi player continues on for 20 seconds with the old music
when switching level maps.

There is FMOD code in DoomLegacy, but it is old and has not been
exercised for a long time. There is some FMOD code in the X11 port, and
some FMOD code in the Win32_NATIVE port. I have had difficulty with
finding a FMOD that will work on Linux.
Getting FMOD to work again, for any game, is
still a work in progress.

[Ville Bergholm]

On 28 December 2016 at 22:53, Wesley Johnson wesleyjohnson@users.sf.net
wrote:

There is FMOD code in DoomLegacy, but it is old and has not been
exercised for a long time. There is some FMOD code in the X11 port, and
some FMOD code in the Win32_NATIVE port. I have had difficulty with
finding a FMOD that will work on Linux.
Getting FMOD to work again, for any game, is
still a work in progress.

The problem with FMOD is the licensing.
It would require a separate license which, while free, would not be
compatible with GPL and might require some negotiation.
It'd be easier if we could manage without it.

Cheers,
Ville

--
Ville Bergholm
ville.bergholm@iki.fi

[Wesley Johnson]

Made new sounds in for the menu because it was using whatever pistol shot was for menu movement. Sometimes it was inappropriate.
I use headphones and that pistol shot hurts my ears.

[Mr.Rocket]

Hi,

The music is from Doom2 map18, it's D_ROMERO, which can also be found here:
http://www.doomworld.com/music/

When testing the midi sound segments, The first one I recorded from legacy, the second one I recorded from zdoom. I was thinking that zdoom used fmod but I may be wrong about that.
The noticable difference is the guitar.

Understandable about the soundfx if you're using headphones.
I suggest using the switch off/on sound fx from doom, it would have a more classic feel, and probably not as bright in the ear as the pistol sound?

Cheers

[Mr.Rocket]

Hi,

After some research I noticed that chocolate doom uses SDL and SDL mixer.
Chocolate doom's midi seems to sound ok. ~ you can hear the guitar.
And I have it set to use general midi.
It's easiest to test in map18 of doom2.
There's also a linux port of chocolate doom. ~ tested with Linux Mint.

Now if you listen very closly for the guitar in legacy it's actaully there but it's "so quiet" that I can hardly tell if it's in time with everything else.
I'm beginning to think that it may be possible that some of the instruments levels may only need turned up in legacy?

Cheers, Ron

[Mr.Rocket]

On the side of menu sound fx, I suppose MENUSOUND could just be changed to 0 to enable standard Doom sound fx instead of legacy 1 by default.
I suggest the distubution versions should be set to 0 as default, like previous versions.

Cheers, Ron

[Wesley Johnson]

The problem with the guitar is in the Windows midisynth sound package. I have it on XP also, and I think I fixed in on the Win98 system some years ago. Check the internet and there are 32 Million hits on windows midi problems.
http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=34949&start=0
Chocolate doom default is to use an OPL synth emulation of its own.
https://www.chocolate-doom.org/wiki/index.php/Setup/Sound_configuration
The Doom2 map5 music with the guitar plays fine on Linux using Timidity and the GUS patches.
Messing with kludges to adjust a specific instrument for the default windows synth is only going to break things for the people has installed a decent midi synth package, like FluidSynth.

[Wesley Johnson]

I spent a week making those new menu sounds specifically because I could no long stand the doom kludge of using a pistol shot in the menus. There was this one PWAD that substituted some awful sound for the pistol shot, and it showed up in the menu too.

Anyone who notices the legacy menu sounds can search for the control to set it back. Once set the config file will keep it there (doesn't it). Nobody will be searching for legacy menu sounds if the doom pistol shot is default.

[Wesley Johnson]

The discussion is worn out. It is far easier and more generally useful to fix the broken midi on Windows by installing decent instruments or a new midi package like FluidSynth.
The harm to those who do not switch is very minimal.
Adding a full midi synth to DoomLegacy is costly, and not something that I want to maintain when the same functionality is already present in existing packages.